Temple: A New Journey Begins
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Kermit returned to the Braniff Sheriff's Office and filled in the Sheriff.
"That doesn't give us much to go on," The Sheriff pointed out. "There are at least a dozen different insect sprays out there. And all of them contain that chemical. The chocolates will also be a problem. There are at least three places in Braniff that sell chocolates. They're all the same to me. I wouldn't know the difference."
Kermit added. "And there are at least two different chocolate companies that make chocolate covered cherries. Did you have any luck with the surveillance cameras?"
"No," The Sheriff said, shaking his head. "All I have is an image of the person leaving and entering, but it's grainy. All you can see is the top of their head. The face is in total shadow. Plus it's in black and white. If it had been in color, we might have gotten a clue from the clothing. Looks like we've got work to do to upgrade our surveillance equipment. Repositioning the cameras where we can get a wider view enabling to see the person's face clearly would help a lot. That's something we're going to have to work on in the future, but I know it doesn't help us with this case"
"Has anyone bothered to go check out where Xia was living?"
"Do you think you might find something there?"
"It's worth a long shot," Kermit continued. "Did she have anything on her, any possessions that might give a clue as to where she lived."
"She did have a set of keys on her, but not much else," the Sheriff stated. "Wait a minute. Benson, when you filled out her arrest form, did she give you an address?"
Deputy Benson got up from his chair and went to a nearby file cabinet. He leafed through the arrest forms and pulled out the one they asked for and handed it to the Sheriff.
The Sheriff gazed over the form and his own eyebrows shot up when he saw what address had been listed. "Are you sure this is the address she gave you?"
"Yeah, that's what she said," Benson answered.
"How long has she been living there?" the Sheriff asked. "Never mind. Looks like three months."
"And the killing of the monks started a month ago," Kermit spoke up. "That is according to Sam Lowery. I'll check it out. Did you find out what that substance was under Xia Tan's nails?"
"Yeah, it was a poison of some kind. Doctor said he never saw anything like it in his life."
"Why am I not surprised. I thought you sent that to forensics."
"The only forensics lab in this area is in Lordsville," the Sheriff stated. "I got this yesterday."
"Don't tell me. The guy whose head of forensics is also the coroner."
"How did you know?"
"Lucky guess," Kermit said sarcastically.
"You seem to know everything," the Sheriff replied in his own sarcastic tone. "Do you know what that poison is? You act as if you've seen this stuff before."
"I've seen a lot of strange things in my lifetime. And yes, I do know what that poison is capable of doing. Having it verified as poison makes it a lot easier to show she murdered the monks. That poison is designed to kill what Caine refers to as ones qi, your life force. It acts on the central nervous system in some manner. I really think you need to look more closely at the death of those monks. Ask Caine about this most recent one. He may not be a coroner, but he is a priest and in this instance, he knew exactly what to look for, because he's seen it before. I suspect that the other three monks died in the same manner. I'll go check out Xia's place."
"Here," Benson tossed Xia's keys toward Kermit. "You're going to need these."
After Kermit left Deputy Benson turned toward the Sheriff.
"Do you supposed we should have told him what he's getting himself into?"
"Nah, he can take care of himself."
Continues with Part 43
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2004.
This story cannot be reprinted or sold in any other form without strict permission from
the author. It is being distributed here solely for your enjoyment.
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